REFERENCE TITLE: federal actions; state nullification

State of Arizona Senate Fiftieth Legislature First Regular Session 2011

SCR 1034

Introduced by Senators Allen, Klein; Representative Harper: Senators Antenori, Gould, Melvin, Shooter; Representative Barton

 

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

 

affirming the sovereignty of the people of the state of Arizona and serving notice to the federal government to cease and desist from implementing laws and mandates that are outside the scope and power of the united states constitution.

 

 

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

 

Whereas, the several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government, but rather under the Constitution of the United States and amendments to that constitution, the states constituted a general government for special purposes and delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving to the states the residuary mass of right to their own self-government.  Whenever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void and of no force.  The government created by this Constitution was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to it, since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers; and

Whereas, the Constitution of the United States delegates to Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting, the securities and current coin of the United States, piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations, and no other crimes.  The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution states that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people", and therefore all acts of Congress that assume to create, define or punish crimes, other than those so enumerated in the Constitution, are altogether void and of no force. The power to create, define and punish other crimes is reserved and, of right, pertains solely and exclusively to the respective states; and

Whereas, this state intends to assure the Legislatures of the several states that this state continues in the same esteem of their friendship and union that it has manifested from that moment at which a common danger first suggested a common union, and that it remains faithful to the Constitution, according to its plain intent and meaning.  This state also believes that to take from the states all the powers of self-government and transfer them to a general and consolidated government, without regard to the special delegations and reservations solemnly agreed to in the Constitution, is not for the peace, happiness or prosperity of these states.  This state maintains that where powers are assumed that have not been delegated, a nullification of the Constitution is the rightful remedy, that states have a natural right in cases not within the Constitution to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits, and that without this right, they would be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of judgment for them.  Congress is not a party to the Constitution, but merely the creature of it, and subject as to its assumptions of power to the final judgment of those by whom and for whose use itself and its powers were all created and modified.  This state considers overreaching acts of Congress as so palpably against the Constitution as to amount to an undisguised declaration that the Constitution is not meant to be the measure of the powers of the federal government, but that Congress aspires to seize the rights of the states and consolidate them in the hands of the federal government.  For states to do so would be to surrender the intended form of government and instead live under one deriving its powers from its own will; and

Whereas, this state unequivocally expresses a firm resolution to maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this state against every aggression either foreign or domestic, and to support the government of the United States in all measures warranted by the former; and

Whereas, this state most solemnly declares a warm attachment to the union of the states, and to this end, it must oppose every infraction of those principles that constitute the only basis of that union, because a faithful observance of them can alone secure its existence and the public happiness; and

Whereas, this state explicitly and peremptorily declares that it views the powers of the federal government as resulting from the Constitution, to which the states are parties, as limited by the Constitution's plain sense and intention, and that the states have the right and are in duty bound to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil and for maintaining within their respective limits the authorities, rights and liberties pertaining to them; and

Whereas, this state expresses its deep regret that the federal government has endeavored to enlarge its powers by forced constructions of the Constitution that defines them, has expounded certain general phrases enumerating a very limited grant of power to destroy their meaning and effect and has consolidated the states by degrees into one sovereignty, inevitably transforming the republican system of the United States into an absolute or, at best, a mixed monarchy.

Therefore

Be it resolved by the Senate of the State of Arizona, the House of Representatives concurring:

1.  That the State of Arizona hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.

2.  That this Resolution serves as notice and demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, from implementing laws and mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.

3.  That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit copies of this Resolution to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate of each state's Legislature and each Member of Congress from the State of Arizona.